You can be forgiven if you thought the Red Bulls were playing with replacement players Saturday night at Vancouver, rather than both teams enduring a game called by replacement referees.

While Major League Soccer on Friday locked out its regular officials in a contract dispute, the Red Bulls team that lost to the Whitecaps, 4-1, in the season opener for both clubs was nothing short of horrific.

A cobbled-together defense was crushed by a quick and relentless Whitecaps attack, and the Red Bulls midfield provided a weak link between the struggling defense and a nearly invisible offense. And do not forget that the Red Bulls, the winners of last season’s Supporters Shield as the No. 1 team over all during the regular season (that’s the last time we will say that here), played without two starters: Thierry Henry and Jamison Olave. A third regular starter, Roy Miller, came on as a second-half substitute.

Henry and Olave were held out of the match, played before a capacity crowd of 21,000 on the artificial turf at B.C. Place, because of worries that the long trip to a game on a hard surface cannot be good for players in their 30s. Miller played in a friendly last week for Costa Rica. Then again, Tim Cahill, who has emerged as the heart and the soul of the Red Bulls, flew from London to British Columbia after playing for Australia in a loss to Ecuador last Wednesday.

While the players available to the second-year Coach Mike Petke may have performed poorly, Petke blamed himself after the match.

“It’s on me,” he said. “I got it completely wrong. It comes down to me. That’s all.”

Asked to elaborate, Petke added: “My game plan obviously was wrong. Elaborate? What do you want me to elaborate on? The whole focus was for the first game the whole preseason and week leading up. With the result, obviously I got it wrong.”

The absence of Olave in the middle of the defense left the newly signed Armando and the shaky Ibrahim Sekagya to try to fend off Vancouver’s Kenny Miller and Darren Mattocks. Mattocks, in particular, gave Armando, a 29-year-old from Spain, problems all evening. On the flanks, Petke went with two escapees from Toronto: Richard Eckersley, whose hand ball led directly to Miller’s opening goal from the penalty spot in the 35th minute; and Bobby Convey. It was a night worth forgetting for all four defenders.

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If not for goalkeeper Luis Robles, the Red Bulls might have allowed Vancouver more than four goals.CreditDarryl Dyck/Canadian Press, via Associated Press

With Dax McCarty and Eric Alexander trying to create something, anything, in the midfield while also keeping an eye on the stumbling defense, there was little continuity in the Red Bulls attack. Cahill was forlorn and forgotten up top. Out on the right, Lloyd Sam gave the Red Bulls their only glimpses of an offense, mostly in the first 30 minutes of the game. But that was simply too little.

“I thought we had chances, but the first two goals, when you look at them, it kind of took a bit out of us,” Sam said. “I mean, we had chances, but just the timing of those goals kind of messed us up. But we’ve got to defend better as a team though. But when you look at the goals, the first one you can’t really do much about that. I would like to see it again, why he gave the penalty, and the second one was a great strike. I’ve seen us play worse and win games.”

Vancouver’s second goal (at the 1:12 mark in the video below), a mere four minutes into the second half, was a thing of beauty from Sebastian Fernandez, a 28-year-old striker from Uruguay who recently joined the Whitecaps from Rayo Vallecano of Spain.

The goal came from a blistering counterattack, with the ball ending up at the feet of Fernandez. The Red Bulls’ defense failed to close down open space, and Fernandez’s right-footed shot sailed past goalkeeper Luis Robles.

Bradley Wright-Phillips, another late substitute, scored a meaningless consolation goal deep into second-half stoppage time to snatch a shutout from Whitecaps keeper David Ousted. The Whitecaps played a strong match for their rookie coach, Carl Robinson, who played two seasons for the Red Bulls.

It was the second consecutive year that the Red Bulls began the season on the West Coast. In 2013 they squandered a lead at Portland in Petke’s debut as coach, but this year the performance was far below expectations.

“What I said to the players is: Get it out of your head, go home, reflect a little bit, and I will do my best to come up with something better,” Petke said.

Asked what needs to improve, he added: “Like I said, my approach to the game: putting players in better spots; analyzing a little better; and giving the players better information, I guess.”

With 33 regular-season league games to go, there is apparently still time for some guessing. The Red Bulls are scheduled to play their home opener Saturday afternoon against Colorado.